The veteran mentor has coached volleyball at either the high school or college level every year since 1977. However, because of a mid-June surgical procedure, he decided to resign from his post as Bloomfield Hills volleyball head coach.

Hurdle did so figuring he would be sidelined for a while due to his medical condition. Fortunately, his recovery has been faster than a sideline slam and he would have been ready to go had he not resigned.

But the process is done and Hurdle will watch the Black Hawks from the sidelines this season.

"I had a medical thing I had to have done and I didn't think I'd be ready for the start of the season," Hurdle said Monday. "That, coupled with the fact that I've done this for so long, I just thought it would probably be better for the school to make sure that they had somebody who was going to be there and able to do what they needed to do for the start of the season.

"Now the good news is, my surgery went exceptionally well and, ironically, I probably would not have needed to leave, but I did not know that for sure and I did not want to leave them hanging. I even told Mike (Cowdrey, the district AD) and R.J. (Guizzetti, the Bloomfield Hills AD) that I'm not retiring, that I'm resigning and I might very well be back shortly. Whether it be in Bloomfield or somewhere else, I don't know.

"I'm already missing coaching. We're what, four days into (the season) right now?" he added. "I'm sitting here wondering, what was I doing? What was I thinking? I'm having withdrawals."

Sterling coaching career

Hurdle began coaching in the Bloomfield Hills district at Andover High School in 1977. After five years, he left the Barons program to coach the fledgling program at Oakland University and made an immediate impact.

Bob Hurdle(Photo: OU athletics)

In just his third season, Hurdle led the Pioneers (at the time) to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship. He would finish his 11-year tenure at OU with two league titles and two runner-up trophies en route to an overall 248-150 record.

Hurdle was inducted into Oakland University's Hall of Fame in 2007.

In 1993, he returned to Andover, where he coached the Barons until the school combined with Lahser to form Bloomfield Hills to start the 2013-14 academic year. He was hired to coach the newly former Black Hawks program, leading them to the Class A district championship in 2015 with a four-set victory over Birmingham Seaholm.

Hurdle's Black Hawks finished 36-12 last year and they figure to return with another strong team for new head coach Larry Wyatt.

Hurdle's sterling 41-year coaching career included 25 years at Andover, 11 seasons at OU and five more at Bloomfield Hills.

"You know what? It's been a great run and I loved every moment of it.," said Hurdle, a West Bloomfield resident and retired teacher. "Volleyball has obviously been a huge part of my life. Like I said, I'm going through a little bit of a withdrawal right now.

"I've had it very, very good in Bloomfield Hills. The program is fully supported. I'm probably going to coach middle school volleyball for Bloomfield and, as we get close to next fall, I'll decide what I'm going to do. I'm not ruling anything out and that's why I told them it's not a retirement, it's a resignation.

"The bottom line is, if you care about the program, the program has to sustain itself and, to sustain itself, it has to have a coach who is going to be totally committed and I didn't know if I was going to be totally committed in the fall and that wasn't fair to the kids.

"Bloomfield Hills will return with a nice foundation and a fair amount of experience this year," he added. "There is a lot of talent in the program and it has some great young players."

Contact Marty Budner at mbudner@hometownlife.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MartyBudner.